How NBA Stars Took A Discriminatory Dress Code And Used It To Their Advantage

The mid-2000s saw the NBA reeling in the aftermath of the Malice at the Palace. Feeling alienated by the rise of expressions of hip-hop culture among NBA players, corporate sponsors were threatening to leave the league in droves. In order to bridge the growing gap between the league and its financial base, David Stern and the NBA’s white leadership commenced an all-out assault on the symbols of blackness sported by the hip-hop generation, with a dress code as its chief weapon.

And as such, 12 years ago in October, Stern and the NBA implemented a dress code, one that remains in effect to this day.

The new rules did not simply call for players to dress in “business casual.” The rules specifically outlawed certain clothing items strongly identified with hip-hop: sleeveless shirts, shorts, jerseys, T-shirts, sports apparel, chains, pendants, medallions, sunglasses and headphones were included among the banned items. “Headgear of any kind” was targeted in particular, unless said headgear was pre-approved by the team and included some sort of team identifier.

NBA executives tried to pass it off as not a racist measure but one to foster professionalism. David Stern said, “The notion is that if you’re a professional, with it are certain protocols. One of them is the way you dress when you’re on business.”

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This is a ridiculous article. These (nba players) are professionals who are making millions of dollars per year.

How is it racist of their employer to ask them to dress professionally?
And how is it racist of the employer to define what “dressing professionally” looks like?

The nba is a business. This measure wasn’t enforced as a way to screw over black people or ruin black culture. It’s was enforced so that the business could be more profitable and so that it could appeal to a wider audience, and so that the business could grow and become more profitable. This wasn’t some spewing out of hate or fear or contempt of black culture. It’s fucking business,man. Asking a millionaire employee to dress nicely for an interview seems like a pretty fair deal to me.

While I agree that the NBA should have a dress code and that it ultimately was a good thing (even in high school, our teams had to wear a solid color button-down shirt and tie), the way it was suddenly implemented had everything to do with race. Anyone who believes otherwise is simply lacking awareness or fooling themselves.

Look, even if a Black man wears a suit, they are still a n*gger to a lot of people. The way the players dressed before the rule change caused a lot of judgment (it was comparable to NFL fans demanding that players stand during the National Anthem – it is race based). And the ones judging were not talking about white players. It was enacted in order to end Black players from bothering non-whites, appearance wise. That was the main objective.

Again, it turned out to be a great move because the players (well, most of them) look a lot better. But at the time, being told you suddenly had to wear a suit when that just was not your style is the equivalent of being hired by a corporation, working for years without mention of a dress code, and then telling every employee “beginning tomorrow, you cannot wear [pointing to employee] that, you have to wear this [hands dress code to employee].”

Some men simply do not wear suits. Some women simply do not wear dresses. No matter the race, those people are going to reject the idea of suddenly having to wear something they never did. It just so happens the NBA placed the rule into place, mainly because of race.

They should implement a “name code” as well to address all those grossly “unprofessional” names like LeBron. What kind of name is LeBron anyways? Does that sound like a businessman’s name? Your name is Toby now. Say it LeBron, say “Toby.” YOUR NAME IS TOBY!

It was absolutely race based. They wanted to go back to Space Jam Michael Jordan, not Soul on Ice Slam Magazine Allen Iverson. Larry Bird Celtic, not Paul Pierce. Salute the flag David Robinson not rapping Shaq Diesel.

Leading to the ironic thing. The culture they were fearing was going to swing in the direction they wanted regardless. Basketball players followed hip-hop artists. Everybody works on a high-class “brand” now. Fifty is wearing suits, Kanye has his own fashion line. Jay-Z will tell you “I’m not a businessman/I’m a business, man”

when your profession is athletics then athletic wear should be deemed professional.

Has anyone ever seen Bill Belichick in a suit.
Do people think he’s unprofessional because of it ?
Mike Nolan wore a suit on the sidelines, he’s was so good at being a professional, not so much in his profession.

Stern was the f**king worst. Good riddance. Also, they didnt mention that black nba players just got a zillion tatttos all over as a big “Fuck you” to the league. Its totally racist but i’m glad players found a way to make a statement and some money off it.

Oh no! How racist that a business (because that’s what the NBA/NFL/etc are at the end of the sadly) enforces a dress code! My god, they even said what they couldn’t wear… like what a dress policy fucking is.
“But what about the specific mention of chains and shit?”
You mean all those things connected to gangsta culture? The culture the looks up to the ideals of committing crimes and shit?
Can’t think why a business would want to separate a (seemingly) crime connected culture away from a league WHERE A PLAYER RECENTLY ASSAULTED A FAN (the fan was an asshat, no issue there).

If there is a racial connection here, it’s because the people involved are of different races. I know that’s a distinction that every writer here now believes that any sort of distinction of race == racism, but for fucks sake, just actually TRY for once and come up with a more complex idea than “people who make millions of dollars a year playing a game shouldn’t be made to follow a dress code during their jobs PR and public commitments because their race allows them to because something something RACISM”

Damn good article, never really thought about it in totality. I think one of the commenters said NBA should have put a name on it and I agree save the large amount of employees and offenses to call out.

This article is ridiculous, as are all the race comments. The salaries and pay of all of the players have increased substantially from this move.

The sponsor’s knew that less people would want to buy products endorsed by someone who looks like they are in a gang. By dressing up the players, people want to buy the endorsed products, the sponsors make more money, the league makes more money, and the players make more money.

Ancillary benefit? The players look way sharper and are more heavily embraced by their fans.

Players are no more embraced by their fans than they were before the dress code. A.I. was a lot of peoples favorite player; white, Black, and every color in between. The only ones I ever heard (personally) having any issue with his appearance were old white folks. I am not speculating when I say it was all about race. I did not grow up in the ghetto. I was in homes where I heard the comments.